(even more) Hearsay and second-Hand : BOM-HKG in J/Y
 

BOM-HKG / Premiere + Economy / October 2012

My comments etc as before...

• Mariette was in Première and her Toy in economy.
• Sahar was fine, for the most part.
• Jet's check-in area was mostly empty, with lots of Y counters free. J, however, had only two counters, so there was a queue of 5-6 people. Still, took only a few minutes to be done.
• No JetLounge at Sahar, of course, but the vile third party lounge. The two had decided they wanted to eat and drink anyway, so no biggie.
• Air India's new airside lounge seems to be operational now. So now we have AI, BA, EK and LH – for all of whom BOM is a spoke – with a lounge. Whilst the home airline and largest tenant has decided "If it's good for Al Yemda's passengers, it bloody well better be good enough for ours."
• The plane was once again parked at a remote stand.
• They sat and waited 25 minutes in the bus, until finally some passenger yelled at the JetAgent. Then Jet grudgingly sent the half-full bus on its way.
• Aircraft was a 332, not a W. Turns out it's been one or the other the last couple of months, with no fixed schedule for deployment). I suppose it's good Jet are nimble with something at least (and the vast number of idle planes helps, of course)
• Once again, there were no pillows or blankets on the seats in economy. Blankets were later given out on demand, though there was no plastic wrapping. And no pillows at all.
• No amenity kits or pyjamas in J. No popcorn either.
• Once again, the aircraft was empty. Première had about 18 people, whilst the entire forward economy cabin was unoccupied. And the back Y cabin had lots of empty seats - entire rows in fact. Even though, once again, OLCI showed all seats in the forward cabin as being unavailable for selection.
• Once the doors were closed, the FAs came around and asked people in Y if they wanted to move and get comfortable, since there was plenty of space for everyone to spread out. That was nice.
• The seats were not all clean. The Aussie Toy moved twice, on account of bubble gum and then chocolate on the seat & belt buckle.
• Upon departure, they did a beverage run and handed out a paneer sandwich wrapped in tissue in both J and Y (how picnic-esque).
• Mari moved to Y after the service was completed..
• Even with the basically non-existent post-departure service, lights weren't dimmed for nearly 90 minutes.
• The IFE choice was typically Jet limited, but decent for a short-ish flight. But again, Jet chose random seasons of random TV shows. And some rather odd movie choices indeed.
• Jet served breakfast, but ran out of the western option, so no input on meal quality here. But it is interesting they do a "snack" / breakfast service to HKG but a dinner/nothing service to SIN. I would think the HKG wallah concept makes more sense.
• Overexcited pilot went on about some nonsense for a good 10 minutes before finals.
• Flight arrived a few minutes early and HKG airport was painless as it always is.

In sum:

• Largely uneventful flights.
• A still-great hard product.
• A still deteriorating soft product, but not (yet) at disturbingly bad levels.
• Hopeless beyond belief JetChildren - in the air and on the ground.
• Extremely dismal loads on both BKK-BOM and BOM-HKG; even more so seeing they were both week-end flights.[/b]

They should consider retraining most of their staff to these levels you experienced...it's going down the tube these days!

their staff dealing with first class passengers has always been nice....never had a bad experience on jet first....

I've flown Jet First twice and I agree, they have been nice experiences onboard (even if I'm not a fan of the suites, but that's just a personal pereference).

Outside of the aircraft though, it seems the difference between BOM & DEL is significant. I wonder why, because not all of it is a result of the airport's limitations.

can't compare since i don't think i've ever flown jet first out of bom....there was one flight in 2007 but for the life of me i can't remember if it was ai or 9w....probably ai....

+1.

Jet's staff at DEL T3 Domestic have always been much better than at BOM Domestic, as far as I have experienced...

BOM international has been good, not exemplary - and I have never flown internationally out of DEL.

I happened to be on a trip last month where I got to fly the old Jet Airways herringbone product and the new staggered layout on the same trip. Can sufficiently say I like the herringbone still much better.
The trip reports were placed here for the A332 and A333.

Herringbone is the best on the Jet A330s.

Everyone is saying this, the Jet FAs were advising me on board a few flights...

On board the A333, the FAs still don't know how to work the service for all pax properly.

In fact, when I mentioned this to an FA while seated on a to/from BRU flight (I can't remember which, and I think it happened more than once) other pax were coming up to me and vociferously vocalizing their hatred for the new "coffin" seats on the A333...

Will now try Virgin to/from EWR and BOM.

So I managed a return redemption on Jet First last minute. Booked at 2pm and flew out of LHR at 8pm and back two days later.

After having flown Swiss, BA & EY F for the last 2 years this was my first flight back on Jet for a while. I have got to say I was very impressed and a little sad that I don't fly this airline anymore. Everything about their service was pure class.

Firstly one negative. NO MORE DOM on Jet First :td::td::td::td::td: They now serve Bolliinger 2002.

Saying that both my flights still had Dom on them but as per Purser this was the last batch of drinks and menu's now say Bollinger to be the only Champagne available in F cabin.

Service was excellent, but as always it was the ground service that simply beats the competition by miles. The hard product on Jet IMHO is better then all European carriers and their soft product is simply class.

I was walked through the airport by a personal porter, walked past a random Jet personnel near duty free and she said greeted me by name. ^

The check in agent remembered me from 2 years back and asked me why I wasn't flying on the domestic segment as I always do after the Jet flight. ^^

It must be 2 years + since my last flight and for the ground personnel to remember me by name and know my routing is excellent.

Overall a great return flight on Jet. I think I would fly them again if their fares come down a little as other options are cheaper.

jet airways
 

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Bad service
 

Reached dubai airport on time an check in was efficient..passed emigration and security and waited for the boarding call. The flight was scheduled for 2.45AM. The actual bording was started only around 2.30Am; reason unknown. Boarded the plane.my seat was in the second last row though I requested a seat towards the front. This may be probably one of the most cramped economy class seat i have flown in my ove 100 flights I had taked so far in my life. 2.45 am came and went and finally push back happend around 3.45am almost one hour late. In between the captain and flight attendant came up on the PA system, no word of reason for this delay or a word of appology.
Finally we were air born just before 4am and reached mangalore around 40minutes late. Not finishedbest experience yet to come.
Passed emigration faily quick. Was wating for the baggage.then I noticed a crowd gathering around a notice board where a long list of passengeres their their baggages have not arrived on the plane.I hoped my name was not going to be there.however my hope was dashed . I was only carrying a tiny had bag with some important papers with me..other 2 bags i am still wating for tonight..no more jetairways

Two flights in business a couple of weeks ago.

BOM-LHR

I’d waitlisted myself for voucher upgrades on this leg, and for the return, about 45 days out. Hadn’t cleared by the day of the flight. Got to the airport and asked the check-in agent what the load was, and she said business was full and hemmed and hawed when I asked about my upgrade. When I said that I’d seen four seats open 20 minutes ago, she got on the phone to someone and shortly after, said I was cleared.

I went to the GVK east lounge this time. It seemed quieter and less populated (though the bar was pretty much full) than the other one. Didn’t bother with putting myself on the waitlist for a massage.

Boarding began an hour ahead of departure, but we only got rolling about 45 minutes past schedule for reasons I didn’t quite catch.

The business cabin was full. The crew seemed reasonably on the ball, but the plane has seen better days. The handset at my seat was wedged so tightly in its slot that neither I nor a member of the crew could pry it loose. And the racket during the take-off roll was epic - it sounded like the plane would break into a thousand pieces around us.

Amenity kits and pyjamas were handed out. Though the kit is Chopard, the bag it comes in is fairly tacky, not something I'd want to hang on to. No slippers, but I don’t think they usually hand those out in J on Jet.

I passed on the meal and had a glass of wine, dessert and tea, which were all decent but nothing to shout about.

The IFE offering was pretty dire.

No one offered to make the bed, and I didn’t care enough either way to ask. It was comfortable enough, but as many others have pointed out, the cubby for the feet is way too tight, and can be an irritant if you’re about 5’9” and above.

Also missing is a decent-sized storage compartment. There are various crannies around the seat that you can stick things into, but you’re always apprehensive of things (phone! specs!) falling into the innards of the seat and being impossible to retrieve.

The toilets were clean throughout, though they ran out of the little cloth towels towards the end.

Breakfast service was about two and a half hours out from landing. Fruit, eggs, bread, preserves, yada yada. All good, nothing spectacular.

Fast-track immigration was a breeze. At the luggage carousel, they were doing this irritating thing where each bag was being pulled off the belt by an airport employee and lined up near the head of the carousel, and people had to wade into the crowd of cases and find theirs. I don’t know what that was all about.

I kept an eye peeled for the arrivals lounge at T4, though didn’t see any signs pointing to it, so just took the tube out.

LHR-BOM

Upgrading was a breeze again. There was one seat free on Expertflyer when I got to the check-in desk, and after a short conversation on the phone, the check-in agent directed me to a ticketing desk across the hall, where I needed to pay the airport tax of £75 (plus a £6.50 surcharge if paid by credit card, ugh!) to secure the upgrade.

The lounge was the Plaza Premium, which was fairly crowded (though the bar section, to the left of reception was pretty quiet), with passengers for the departures to AUH, DEL etc. There were four shower rooms, but there was a wait of about 30-40 minutes for one.

Boarding started an hour out from departure again, and I made it on board with 35 minutes left, by when the business cabin appeared to be full.

I was in the first row, in one of the middle seats, and though initially apprehensive of the noise from the galleys and the closeness of the toilets, those weren’t a problem, and I quite liked the fact that there are no other pax in your eyeline (or peripheral vision), which contributes to a sense of greater privacy.

The seat was fine but the divider was sticky and needed the intervention of an able-bodied crew member to raise.

While the cabin manager went out of his way to make me feel welcome, the rest of the crew were either too uninterested or too incompetent. The two staffers working my side of the aisle seemed like trainees who’d rather have been anywhere else but on board.

After my drink and meal order was taken, it needed three reminders for me to get my drink, well after everyone else had got theirs, two to get a cup of tea (mentioned at the time of the dinner order) at the end of the meal. Pyjamas had to be asked for. No offer to top up drink, no one asking if I needed anything at any point (save for the lead attendant, but he wasn't working my aisle, and I don't think his instructions to the rest of the crew carried much weight).

The champagne is now Bollinger, I think, and not the Billecart-Salmon.

No eyeshades and earplugs in the amenity kit, for some reason.

The main course (prawn biryani) was good, but the fruit plate for dessert was depressing - three minuscule slices of melon, half a strawberry, and two slices of pineapple, from what I remember.

All through the flight, it seemed like the crew were trying to get service wrapped up in record time and didn’t care how many corners they cut in the process.

One of them made my bed for me - after some following-up, like with the drink and tea. For some reason, the bed felt oddly shorter than on the inbound leg - the pillow constantly felt like it was going to tip backward into the recess behind the seat.

Breakfast service started well over three hours before landing. Eh?

Again, the impression of a tearing hurry to get things over with. The meal was a skimpy continental affair - just bread and butter and preserves and beverages.

Once that was done, with a full hour and three quarters to go, they announced that those who needed to use the toilets needed to do so in 20 minutes as descent would commence soon. Seriously?

The toilets were clean all through again. Bonus: this time, plenty of face towels even towards the end of the flight.

Disembarkation was uneventful - if you don’t count the three or four people from the rear of the cabin who hurried to the front to be among the first to get off. Immigration counters were decently staffed, unlike at some times where the priority queue for first and business class moves much slower than the general line because there is only one counter operative for premium classes. Baggage arrived fairly quickly.

All in all, a good flight, though the crew was a disappointment, as they often are with 9W.